Our Belgian-style Extra Pale Ale is brewed with heaps of sweet Mandarin oranges from Blossom Bluff Farms and California two-row barley. We dry-hop with generous doses of aromatic Cascade and Columbus hops and finish the beer with a hint of lightly toasted American oak. Enjoyed best with your favorite seasonal fare.

Pours a finger of head on a clear copper colored body.The aroma is loaded with pine and grapefruit... it's like putting the hop cone right up to your nose.The taste is moderate pine bitterness, then tapers off to a mildly sweet malt finish. The texture is crisp with some softness around the edges.Enjoyable to drink.

S- Instantly pick up the Mandarin oranges. They have really taken the nose hostage. Some citrus and earthy hops in the background. Cracker malts. I know the orange is added, but I like the aroma of it.

T- Citrus, orange, pepper on the front end. Mellows out towards the end. Not picking up much of the Belgium aspect.

M- Acidic, light body, not overly bitter. Crisp.

O- Solid start, mild finish. Not sure it fits the profile of the style it claims to be, but I certainly enjoyed it.

Pour / Appearance: A hazy orange, with a bit of reddish tinge. Looks a bit more like a wit than a pale, if only it weren't for the clarity as the beer sits a few moments. Bottle was very highly carbonated, and on the verge of gushing. Had to let the head settle a few times to get the whole bottom, even in a 16oz tulip. A good bit of head settles on top of the beer.

Aroma: Heavy, pungent orange. I believe oranges are actually added to this beer, so that's no surprise. Otherwise very floral, citrusy hops, with hints of earth (although that's likely from the malt). Almost smells like a cascade bomb in a lot of ways.

Taste: Well, it tastes a good bit like a cascade bomb. Or, maybe that's just the citric acid from the oranges plus light hops, as there is no heavy bitterness here. It's very refreshing and light at 6%, and I'm content with it as a nice after work beer. That said, there's really not much special here. I don't get the Belgian appellate Beer Advocate has applied, as outside a few yeast esters it's much more in the East Coast Pale Ale vein.

Overall: It's a good beer. It's not a great beer, by any means, and probably not worth the price I paid to order it, but if it was local it'd be a nice sixer to bring to a party or pick up after work.

Bottom Line: Buy if you like (hopefully) cheap, interesting pales, and American attempts at Belgian yeast spicing without the actual yeast presence. Try if you just want a nice sipper. Disregard if you already have a favorite pale and don't want to try the orange-ade version.

Tastes fizzy up front, then there comes nodes of pleasantly aggressive pepper, and then a tiny bit of a citrus. The back end is firm, with more nodes of white pepper against a light woody finish. I honestly probably wouldn't have guessed it was oak aged unless the bottle hadn't said so, because the yeast is really the dominant feature here. It's one of the most aggressively spicy light-ABV beers I've ever had that wasn't aged with peppers.

This is a very hoppy, dry Belgian Pale. More of a hybrid BPA/AIPA than an Orval-type BPA.

Almanac might be the first brewery which I've seen to take advantage of the inevitable "farm to bottle" marketing, which is seen on the bottle. They're certainly not afraid to shout out about it. Here comes an extra pale ale brewed with mandarin oranges and aged in a little oak. Let's see how it was executed. On to the beer:

Looking copper colored with a tint of orange coloring and topped with a half-inch of creamyish head on top. This one provides a good lacing show to the eyes. The aroma is clean and grassy, which was a refreshing first impression to the nose. I also get a dry hoppiness with potential. I also get raw barley and earthy notes, so perhaps it's not crisp and clean as I first though, but still has a pleasant nose.

Much of what I got in the aroma makes its way into the taste, which starts off somewhat clean and grassy. It has a very earthy taste, so perhaps Almanac was right when they say "farm to bottle", because I might have tasted a bit of the farm itself. The resin I get adds a bitterness which throws the beer a little out of balance. Kiss of toffee is provided from the malt. Sorry, I can't find any orange or oak anywhere, so that's a little disappointing. Beer is medium bodied with a modest crispness.

Pleasant enough pale ale. Regarding the marketing, being "farm to bottle" doesn't do much when the consumer is not provided a freshness date.